


Empaths

by izzylawliet



Category: VIXX
Genre: Auras, Colors, Empath, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sex, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 04:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18203477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzylawliet/pseuds/izzylawliet
Summary: Jaehwan takes until there is very little of him left in it all, but Sanghyuk always manages to find him, the wisps of him too clear to lose in the myriad of colors.





	Empaths

**Author's Note:**

> So this came out in the span of an hour on a whim and I would appreciate any note of mistakes that may have occurred. I can't bring myself to read over it yet as this was a sort of.. draining exertion for myself. I did want to share it with you guys, though. 
> 
> Please enjoy it and let me know what you think!

“You took on too much this time, didn’t you?” 

The breath is whispered against dewy skin, the heat of it warming and only causing a rise in sensitivity. The intense electricity that was in a constant transfer between the two peaked in that moment, as though the last bit of energy that could be absorbed  _ was _ . 

“Stop...stop taking. Give now...now is the time to give.” The words are still hushed. Neither would need to speak in more than a murmur, an exhale of breath, not when desperation is clear on their tongues and need embedded in their touch, burning flesh and leaving no traces behind. 

“But you can’t take it all…how is that any better?” 

“Don’t you trust me?” 

The silence is acute. Jaehwan isn’t sure he could take in another lungful of air without ending up expressing all the pent up energy that had been fixed into his bones. He shakes with the force of it. How had he let himself get this bad? Why had he let this happen? 

His own touch is light, is hesitant as though he can’t trust his own touch — and maybe, at this point, he can’t. Jaehwan does trust Sanghyuk’s, though. He trusts it with every thought, every feeling, every fiber of his being. He knows that Sanghyuk would take what he could and no more. Sanghyuk is more mindful like that while Jaehwan is… not. 

Their fingers touch, they meld, they draw together like acrylics to a canvas. Jaehwan releases a noise, a breath of anguish. It aches, the surrender not one his mind is willing to give in to. The struggle shows in the furrowing of his brow, in the pursing of his lips, the wetness that appears in his eyes. Yet, Sanghyuk is ever so patient with him. They are pressed close together, Jaehwan’s back reclined comfortably along the couch, Sanghyuk’s form against his, pressed against the cushions and halfway over Jaehwan at this point, such a figure that is comforting and secure, safe enough to remind him that he  _ can _ give away everything even if his instincts tell him to hoard it. 

“Keep going.” 

Jaehwan’s eyes flicker up from survey of blended hues along the length of their fingers. He watches Sanghyuk’s lips curve into a smile, one so understanding, one so gentle and sweet. He sees the tinge of desperation in his being, the reflection of emotion in his eyes, and the pressing concern that weighs heavily on his aura. He feels the thickness of it as though it were his own and, before he knows it, it becomes his own. 

“Jaehwan.” Sanghyuk gasps out of relief, unbidden and lacking consent. The shock is followed by a sense of betrayal as Jaehwan cowers in the slightest, clearly ashamed of his actions. “Give it back. It is mine. I have asked you not to do that anymore…” 

There is opposition that resonates from Jaehwan at that point. Refusal paints on his lips. Bitterness touches his tongue and threatens to distort into harmful words. Nothing falls from them and to Sanghyuk until another moment, and in that case, it simply becomes— 

“I’m sorry.” Jaehwan quietly conveys, the sincerity clear in his eyes. There is a pressure of his hand against Sanghyuk’s in the next moment, a silent consent, offering, to the younger. “Continue. I’ll stop… I’ll stop fighting.” 

Sanghyuk always thought that it would be easy, or should be easy. He always had a natural affinity for this part of it, while Jaehwan struggled not to take and take until he couldn’t breathe anymore, until his own emotions were unclear and entwined too drastically to be picked apart. In that moment, he doesn’t know where he beings, he doesn’t know how Sanghyuk could even  _ see _ him among the jumble of colors he know darkened him. How can he still exist if not the countless others he’d taken from? He certainly doesn’t feel like he exists any longer. 

His fingers line up as best as they can and he puts in effort to match his breathing to Sanghyuk’s, aligning them in ways more intimate than he’d been with any other. This entire thing, this intimacy… Jaehwan had once felt perturbed by it, almost violated. He should have known when he first encountered the gold of Sanghyuk’s heart that it’d soon become his own. 

Jaehwan’s eyes fall closed. He knows that Sanghyuk’s do not, though, intending to pick out each tendril of color that distorts the view of his own. It’s a tedious process that he does not have the patience to learn, one that he is ever so grateful that Sanghyuk does. He’d be lost, he’d be gone, without the younger to ground him, to find him when the disarray shrouds to the point of darkness. 

Each pluck to his aura aches, a pain that tugs him from the even breaths that he was told before to keep steady at all costs. Sanghyuk wouldn’t hurt him, not intentionally, but the shades that buried him yielded at every attempt. 

The tears that fall go unnoticed by every man, though surely aid in the discovery of the true parts of Jaehwan. While the elder doubts that Sanghyuk ever really struggles to find him, to  _ see _ him, Jaehwan fears with each passing day, he grows too murky to be recovered. 

“Sanghyuk…” Jaehwan whispers at a particular painful draw. 

“I know. I see it.” 

Jaehwan’s eyes open and the struggle he is met with that’s present on Sanghyuk’s face is stark, it’s a slap in the face. Sweat has begun to perspire across Sanghyuk’s forehead, the crinkle of his brow soon to become permanent if not corrected. It is a sight that is concerning and Jaehwan’s first instinct was to soothe him, but it would be counterproductive, it would be the opposite of what Sanghyuk is trying to accomplish and he would not let his efforts go wasted. 

“Please…” Jaehwan’s other hand is more shaky than before as it rises to brush soft fingertips to Sanghyuk’s reddened lips. He’s been biting at the bottom one; Jaehwan can see the indent of his teeth. “No more. You’re… you’re unclear.” 

Unclear is not a state Sanghyuk finds himself in often. He is always adamant on staying clear, of being obvious to Jaehwan, not letting his thoughts or otherwise cause a disturbance to who he was. Unclear means that he has gone too far himself, that he is at risk of ending in a situation that he is not used to, because while Jaehwan is  _ hurting _ from the weight of all he took on, he is at least used to it. It would be enough to destroy Sanghyuk. 

Their hands stay pressed together, but Sanghyuk releases the pressure of their hands. 

The connection wanes but does not fade. There is always a link between them, one that Jaehwan had not known of until Sanghyuk had found him, had followed his line of gold to the one who held it so factually and did not know it yet. Jaehwan is lucky he had, because he knew, then, that he did not have long before it would have all gone to black. 

Silence falls again, heavy with the tension of their act. Jaehwan fears for a moment that Sanghyuk is finally conscious of the risk he is taking and no longer wishes to put himself in such a position. And when the younger pushes himself up from the couch, Jaehwan fears that is finally a reality. His heart nearly stops and he pulls his hand from Sanghyuk to instead curl at his shirt, refusing to let go because he knows that his life depends on the man’s presence in it. 

But his fear is not unusual, his insecurity not uncommon between them. Sanghyuk knows, he understands, and he smiles down at Jaehwan as he is then above him, more properly in actuality; it’s a fact that’s only realized when Jaehwan’s blood pressure lowers to reasonable limits, when his heart isn’t so frantic to hold on to the only thing he finds to hold value. 

“How many times do I have to tell you? We’re bound together, I am  _ bound _ to you… why would I want to leave?” 

The knowledge, the reminder, is always enough to have Jaehwan flushing tones of red that he wouldn’t normally. Yes, they are bound together, an act unconscious on Jaehwan’s part, a fact that neither of them had asked for, but had fallen into with such ease that they know it was always meant to be that way. 

“I know… I just… you should go cleanse now, baby.” Jaehwan’s hand is cupping at Sanghyuk’s cheek, loving the way he turns as if an autonomic response is to press his mouth to kiss the heel of his palm. “I will wait.” 

Sanghyuk shakes his head and places one hand over Jaehwan’s, letting their true colors mingle together, the cast of it more clear and the pureness of his own not so misty. 

“Why would I do that? You know how this works for me.” 

Yes, Jaehwan does know, embarrassingly so. He knows how Sanghyuk likes to cleanse, he knows what works the best for him, and most of the time, he never minds being a willing participant in the act. But then… with the extensive draining they both just endured, he is afraid that he would be of no help and only worsen it. 

“Why do you hesitate? Why… after all this time? After all the times we’ve done this…” 

It’s a simple question, one that Jaehwan knows Sanghyuk will object to the answer to. It’s something he’s kept to himself, something that has been hidden deep within him for so long now. It’s a secret he wants to take to his grave. 

“You.. you are no longer gold, baby… and I… I am the cause of that.” The tears that fall this time are caught by a loving hand that is ever so patient with him. He feels like he betrayed the only one who would have ever thought to care for him or love him in any capacity. 

Instead, Sanghyuk is laughing and looking down with a brightness to his expression that Jaehwan had thought he’d lost the honor to see ever again. 

“No, I am no longer gold.” He says it with such ease. 

“You aren’t!” Jaehwan says as though he could make it clear how dire this situation was. He wants to both slap and kiss the man with the gorgeous smile above him. 

“I’m a white gold now.” How Sanghyuk can stay so calm about this… it drives Jaehwan insane. 

“Yes! Which means I’m tainting you! I’m erasing who you are! I’m taking from you what makes you, you, and I’m terrible.” While tears have ceased to fall for the time being, there is a pout that takes their place. 

“You are tainting me.” When Jaehwan opens his mouth again to make some refute, Sanghyuk’s silences him with a single finger to his mouth. “You are tainting me… just like I am tainting you. I started like a candle in your heart, baby, but now… now I have spread to every corner of your being like you have mine. You are no longer white, either.” 

“I...I’m not?” The confusion is endearing, at least that’s what Jaehwan takes from the broader smile on Sanghyuk’s mouth. 

“No. You are white gold.” 

“I am… the same as you?” 

“The same as me.” 

“Oh.” 

“Oh.” Sanghyuk mirrors and lowers his mouth to take a kiss, a soft press of lips, letting the anxiety begin to be washed away. It’s a pure feeling, or at least that’s what Jaehwan can feel from the relaxation of his body, of how he can so easily melt into him like he doesn’t have the weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s unfair how easily Sanghyuk can forgo the negative burden of others. Yet, Jaehwan also counts himself lucky that Sanghyuk shares that with him like he does. And in that moment, and the moments to follow, Jaehwan certainly feels how easily Sanghyuk lets go of any burdens. 


End file.
